From Old English 'cild,' originally meaning 'womb' — 'children' is a double plural, re-pluralized after speakers forgot the first.
A young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority.
From Old English 'cild' (child, infant, unborn or newly-born child), from Proto-Germanic *kilþaz (womb, fetus; child), from PIE *ǵelt- (womb), connected to PIE *ǵel- (to give birth, to swell). The Old English plural 'cildru' later became 'children,' an unusual double plural (the -r- suffix was already a plural marker, then -en was added). Cognates in other Germanic branches show